Omadacycline Equally Effective as Linezolid to Treat Complex Skin Infections: Study

A recent study published in the BMC Infectious Diseases discovered that Omadacycline (OMC) which is a newer antibiotic, is just as effective and safe as the more traditionally used Linezolid (LZD) for treating complicated skin and soft tissue infections (cSSTIs) in adults. This findings could significantly impact the approach that healthcare professionals take in managing these challenging infections.

This complicated skin and soft tissue infections represent a substantial burden to the healthcare systems over the world due to their often difficult-to-treat nature. These infections require antibiotics that can treat the infection effectively and minimize the risk of resistance. The search for such antibiotics led Wenxin Liang and team to compare Omadacycline with Linezolid for treating complicated skin and soft tissue infections.

The study synthesizes data from four randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and included a total of 1,757 patients to assess the clinical efficacy, microbiological response and safety profiles of OMC when compared to LZD. The findings indicated that OMC is not inferior to LZD by showing comparable success rates in both the modified intent-to-treat (MITT) and clinically evaluable (CE) populations. Also, the odds ratio (OR) for clinical efficacy in the MITT population was 1.24 (95% CI: [0.93, 1.66], P = 0.15) and in the CE population, it was 1.92 (95% CI: [0.94, 3.92], P = 0.07) that indicated no significant difference between the two drugs.

Also, the study looked into the microbiological response of OMC against LZD and found that OMC had a numerically higher response rate, though not statistically significant. The mortality and adverse event rates were similar for both treatments which suggests a comparable safety profile of OMC to LZD.

These results are significant and this suggest that healthcare providers may have an additional tool to treat cSSTIs that potentially offers a new antibiotic option which is just as effective and safe as the current standard of care. Also, the similarity in efficacy and safety profiles between OMC and LZD brought out that patients who cannot tolerate one medication might have another viable alternative. Th findings of this study could possibly pave the way for Omadacycline to become a more widely used option in treating complicated skin and soft tissue infections.

Reference:

Liang, W., Yin, H., Chen, H., Xu, J., & Cai, Y. (2024). Efficacy and safety of omadacycline for treating complicated skin and soft tissue infections: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. In BMC Infectious Diseases (Vol. 24, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-024-09097-3